Spring Break
U.S. officials reconsider walling off Sunni neighborhood; bombings kill 48 across Iraq
The Associated Press
Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: News
BAGHDAD - U.S. officials signaled Monday that they might reconsider putting a three-mile concrete barrier around a Sunni Arab neighborhood in Baghdad after Iraq's struggling prime minister came under pressure from Sunnis and ordered the project halted.
With the latest snag in U.S.-Iraqi security cooperation, insurgents delivered a fresh example of the style of attacks that the military said the wall was designed to deter - seven bombings that killed at least 48 people across Iraq.
Plans for the separation barrier to protect the Azamiyah neighborhood were in doubt after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized the idea of creating "gated communities" to separate Baghdad's sectarian neighborhoods.
Speaking during a tour of Sunni-led Arab countries, the Shiite Muslim prime minister said he did not want the 12-foot-high wall planned for Azamiyah to be seen as dividing the capital's sects.
Iraq's Sunni Arab minority dominated during Saddam Hussein's reign, and its members remain deeply distrustful of Shiite intentions and provide the backbone of the Iraqi insurgency.
Shiite militias, in turn, have been attacking Sunni neighborhoods in retaliation for insurgent attacks on their own communities.
Azamiyah's Sunni residents have been the target of frequent mortar attacks by Shiite militants, but hundreds of people in the district took to the streets to protest against the wall that they said would make their neighborhood "a big prison."
The new American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, defended the barrier plan Monday, saying it was an effort to protect the Sunni community from surrounding Shiite areas, not to segregate it.
Holding his first news conference since taking his post, Crocker said security measures were implemented in coordination with the Iraqi government. "Obviously, we will respect the wishes of the government and the prime minister," he said, although he did not say construction would halt.
Al-Maliki said he would not allow "a separation wall," but then he said that the subject would be discussed and that he would not rule out all barriers, such as barbed wire.
With the latest snag in U.S.-Iraqi security cooperation, insurgents delivered a fresh example of the style of attacks that the military said the wall was designed to deter - seven bombings that killed at least 48 people across Iraq.
Plans for the separation barrier to protect the Azamiyah neighborhood were in doubt after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized the idea of creating "gated communities" to separate Baghdad's sectarian neighborhoods.
Speaking during a tour of Sunni-led Arab countries, the Shiite Muslim prime minister said he did not want the 12-foot-high wall planned for Azamiyah to be seen as dividing the capital's sects.
Iraq's Sunni Arab minority dominated during Saddam Hussein's reign, and its members remain deeply distrustful of Shiite intentions and provide the backbone of the Iraqi insurgency.
Shiite militias, in turn, have been attacking Sunni neighborhoods in retaliation for insurgent attacks on their own communities.
Azamiyah's Sunni residents have been the target of frequent mortar attacks by Shiite militants, but hundreds of people in the district took to the streets to protest against the wall that they said would make their neighborhood "a big prison."
The new American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, defended the barrier plan Monday, saying it was an effort to protect the Sunni community from surrounding Shiite areas, not to segregate it.
Holding his first news conference since taking his post, Crocker said security measures were implemented in coordination with the Iraqi government. "Obviously, we will respect the wishes of the government and the prime minister," he said, although he did not say construction would halt.
Al-Maliki said he would not allow "a separation wall," but then he said that the subject would be discussed and that he would not rule out all barriers, such as barbed wire.
Be the first to comment on this story